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SAE World Congress: Testing out the Honda UNI-CUB, Walking Assist Device

Based on the downstairs display at the 2015 SAE World Congress in Detroit this week, you would think that Honda is barely an automaker. Instead, it was a company that focuses on robots, bizarre unicycles, motorcycles, and jets. We were not adverse to the car-related tech on display upstairs, but we wanted a closer look at the UNI-CUB and the Walking Assist Device. The UNI-CUB is one of the strangest vehicles we've ever experienced. It feels telepathic, because when you're sitting on it and think you want to go forward, your body naturally leans and then the UNI-CUB starts to move. The UNI part of the name stands for unicycle, but that's kind of a misnomer, since this thing has more than one wheel. First off, there's a tiny wheel for balance at the rear, but the main wheel itself is made up of multiple smaller wheels, which Honda calls the Omni Traction Drive System. This is what lets the UNI-CUB move side to side instead of just frontwards and backwards. The Walking Assist Device is a small setup with motors, leg straps, and a battery pack. The idea is to have the machine help lift up your legs as you walk, with the target audience being people who have had an injury, like a stroke. The WAD sits outside your clothes and can help someone walk for about an hour from a 22.2V-1Ah lithium-ion battery. You can see more in the video above.

Alonso and Button try out Honda's Uni-Cub mobility scooter

As two of the best racing drivers in the world, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have some pretty serious wheels at their disposal. They'll both be driving the latest McLaren-Honda MP4-30 on the track this year, will likely have access to supercars like the new Acura NSX or McLaren 650S for toying around with when they're not working, and probably each have an enviable motor pool of their own at home. This, then, must have been quite a change of pace for them both. As you can see from this video tweeted by McLaren, the two highly accomplished F1 drivers hopped on a very different set of wheels recently: namely, Honda's Uni-Cub "personal mobility device." The experimental electric motorized bar stool is controlled by shifting your weight to and fro (like a Segway), but stands just two feet tall and tops out at less than four miles per hour. At that rate, it would take them almost an hour to take one lap around the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX, where the 2015 United States Grand Prix will be held in October. In that same time span, for perspective's sake, they'd be lapped more than 30 times by their rivals... so they'd better stick to the racing machinery once the championship gets under way. What happened when @alo_oficial and @JensonButton got hold of a UNI-CUBAcA?A¦ https://t.co/YP8r9z1OsG - McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 10, 2015

Latest Honda promo film is a Never Ending Race against emissions

A new Honda promotional video shows clips of a hazy, smog-choked Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, and then gives the company credit for its lead role in cutting vehicle-emissions by a factor of one thousand since 1970. Self-serving? Sure. Then again, this LA-native reporter born in 1970 can't help but be somewhat appreciative. The nearly five-minute video takes a tour through Honda history, showing the Japanese automaker using its experience designing race cars to help develop smaller engines such as its four-cylinder CVCC. An early proponent of California's Clean Air Act, Honda recounts its low-emissions history with the first production low-emission vehicle (the 1996 Civic) and the first production ultra-low-emission vehicle (the 1998 Accord), and says it's approaching "near zero emissions" for its new cars. For anyone keeping track, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said late last year that Honda's 2013 model-year vehicles averaged an even 27 miles per gallon, and that's with a fairly limited number of hybrids and plug-ins sold. That number was up from its 26.6 mpg in 2012 and second only to Mazda's 27.5 mpg among the major automakers. The overall 2013 average was 24.0 mpg. Read Honda's press release here and check out the Honda video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Honda's "Never Ending Race" Documents its Four-Decade Battle Against Air Pollution Third film in award-winning Environmental Short Film Series explores Honda's voluntary efforts to reduce vehicle emissions over forty-year period Honda's successful demonstration of low-emissions vehicle technology led state of California to adopt new, more stringent emissions regulations New-vehicle emissions are 1/1000th of 1970 levels Next environmental "race" is against global climate change TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As unprecedented levels of pollution choked the nation's largest cities in the early 1970's, a group of automobile engineers secretly toiled to develop an engine technology that would significantly reduce pollution from automobiles.